James Gillray: Satirical Printmaker
James Gillray: Satirical Printmaker
Born 13 August 1756, James Gillray was an English caricaturist and printmaker who earned fame from his political and social satires during what is customarily described as the ‘golden age’ of English political caricature (1780-1830). He began his career as an academic engraver and was admitted to the Royal Academy schools in the spring of 1778 [1]. During the 1780s, Gillray engraved for a considerable number of publishers. His first prints were rendered in the Bartolozzi manner—highly finished, almost sculptural in their attention to modeling and strongly inclined towards caricature [2]. Stimulated by the political turbulence of 1782, Gillray’s work began taking on an increasingly caricaturized appearance. After recognizing the potential value of an expressive, easily repeated recipe for an individual’s face, Gillray began transforming political figures. For example, whereas he had previously illustrated politician Charles James Fox as an actual fox, he now substituted the fox’s head and brush with full jowls and bushy eyebrows of the human original [3].
In mid-1783, Gillray took a three-year lapse from caricature to follow a parallel career as a stipple engraver. However, mid-1786 found him back in the ranks of professional satirists. In the autumn of 1791 Gillray began to etch exclusively for ‘Mrs.’ Hannah Humphrey, the younger sister of his first publisher.
Gillray’s caricatures can be divided into two classes: political and social. His political caricatures form a historical record of the latter part of the reign of George III. Widely circulated throughout Britain and Europe, these prints primarily featured trenchantly satirized figures of George III, the Queen, the Prince of Wales, Charles James Fox, Edmund Burke, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, William Pitt and Napoleon [4]. His social caricatures focused on the British bourgeoisie, emphasizing their immoral and corrupt behaviors.
Gillray’s capacity for creative work began to decline in 1807. During the late spring or summer, he appears to have suffered a mental and physical breakdown that resulted his convalescence at the seaside town Margate. Although returning to work in 1808, his production as a whole continued to decline. After sporadic achievements during the spring and summer of 1810, Gillray lapsed into a state of insanity, which persisted until his death in 1815 [5].
For more information on James Gillray and to see the scale of his prints watch "The Work of James Gillray, English Caricaturist" presented by the Goldmark Gallery:
Gillray's Technique: Hand-colored Etching
Gillray's preferred method of printmaking was hand-colored etching. In the etching process a metal plate, usually made from copper, zinc or steel is coated with a waxy acid-resistance substance, which the artist draws his design with a metal needle. When the design is finished, the plate is immersed in acid. The acid eats into the metal, where it is exposed by the design, resulting in lines in the plate.
Below is a more detailed video on the process of etching produced by the Goldmark Gallery:
Once the print is dried, color can be applied by hand using watercolor paints.
[1] Draper Hill, Mr. Gillray the Caricaturist, A Biography (London: The Phaidon Press, 1965), 20.
[2] Ibid, 21. Francesco Bartolozzi (1728-1815) was an Italian engraver who was an active member of the faculty at the Royal Academy when Gillray attended.
[3] Draper Hill, Fashionable Contrasts, Caricatures by James Gillray (London: Phaidon Press, 1966), 11.
[4] Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s. v. "James Gillray", accessed May 25, 2015, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/233800/James-Gillray. (Link to article)
[5] Draper, Fashionable Constrasts, 16.